Ghent, Belgium: Staying on the Edge of a Canal

In 2020 my daughter Andrea and I had plans to visit the tulip fields of the Netherlands. We planned to go during her spring break from school. We had all our reservations made, but then COVID hit. Our plans flew out the window as we scrambled to at least get our money back.

This year we finally made good on those plans from two years ago. However, we made some modifications by starting in Belgium. Our first stop was Ghent.

Getting to Ghent was a challenge in itself. The amount of paper work one has to complete now is crazy. We didn’t need any COVID tests, but we did need to upload all our vaccine records. It was a bit stressful getting everything ready. Having a last minute flight delay didn’t help either, but in the end we made it to Belgium.

From the Brussels airport we caught a train into Ghent where we were spending two days in a rental apartment. Since we arrived in Ghent late morning on Easter Sunday, we found ourselves with time to kill before we could get into our apartment. We decided to walk through town since we had been sitting on an airplane for so long. We also decided to take the long way there so we could go through a park. The park was nothing exceptional, but it was quiet and allowed us to relax some.

As we soon discovered, rolling suitcases over rough cobblestone roads is not easy. Even walking on the uneven paths became challenging after walking for a long time.

We finally found our rental, but we were still a few hours early. I decided we could go in using the access code, leave our luggage, and then be able to more freely explore the city. Everything seemed ready when we went in so it didn’t seem to be a problem.

With our luggage safely stowed, we began to explore the town of Ghent. Our first impression was that it was much larger than either of us expected. Not only that, but it was a very busy place. Perhaps because it was Easter weekend, many people had come here for the holiday. Since Good Friday and Easter Monday are both holidays, many people had a four day weekend. It seemed many had come here to Ghent to enjoy it.

The River Lys flows through Ghent, and other canals connect to it. Buildings are often built right along side of the waterway. Our apartment faced one of the canals. We followed the canal and ended up finding a number of large and impressive older buildings. In fact the main city area consists of mostly older buildings.

There are quite a few churches in the area built in various styles. Their steeples tend to dominate the skyline. Unfortunately none of the churches were open to the public to view inside. One was allowing some in if they had purchased a time spot online. Since it was Easter Sunday, I wasn’t surprised that the churches were closed for tourists. However, we could certainly look around at the exterior features.

Many European towns have a clock tower, and Ghent is no exception. It’s possible to climb to the top of the old Belfry. We considered that, but the line was long, and we didn’t get back to it.

Another feature of the city is that there are a number of squares around. These squares are surrounded by many of the old buildings. Churches anchor some of the squares, but not all of them. The largest one we encountered was Vrijdagmarkt, which at one point was the place for the public market.

One thing one can count on is that there will be restaurants at the squares. The restaurants have some indoor seating, but usually the majority of their seating is outside. The restaurants also seem to block together so one will find three or four restaurants in a row. Sometimes it’s hard to tell which restaurants belongs to which outdoor seating area. On a Sunday afternoon it was hard to find an empty table. The lunch hour seemed to stretch well into the afternoon.

As we wandered the streets, we considered taking a canal tour but decided we would wait for the evening. That’s another thing we never got back to. I guess the lesson here is to take the opportunity when you can. It may not come again.

Our wanderings brought us to a forbidding looking building known as the Castle of the Counts which was built in 1180. The exterior looked more like a fort. We would have liked to have toured the building, but it required a ticket, which were sold out for the day. Sadly another missed opportunity.

After the Castle of the Counts, we came to one of my favorite areas of Ghent, Graslei and Korenlei. It is an area of restaurants and shops along the River Lys with wide sidewalks on both sides. It is a public plaza but with the river running through the middle. People were lounging around the edges of the river or eating at the restaurants. It just seemed a fun place to hang out. St. Michael’s Bridge is one of the best locations to take photos of the area.

After walking around for a while we took a break and went back to our apartment for a nap. We were feeling pretty tired from our day which had started in San Jose, CA on Saturday morning. After an hour nap we decided to try to find something for dinner. It was my birthday so I wanted a nice meal. Unfortunately that was easier said than done. I really didn’t want to pay 20-30 euros for a meal even if it was my birthday so we settled for a hamburger, which was actually quite good even if a bit messy.

After eating we wandered off in the general direction of our apartment. We came across something which surprised me, a graffiti alley. Graffiti art is popular in many areas. Melbourne, Australia even had a map showing where some of the popular graffiti spots were. However, in this old city I did not expect a graffiti alley.

Returning to the apartment we waited for the night to settle. In the apartment we saw a brochure for a night tour of the city. That made perfect sense as lighting can really change things. We didn’t want to do the tour, which was a two hour tour, but we did figure we could go out and see what the night had to offer.

The brochure suggested a route to follow, but that became too confusing. We just walked back to see the places we had visited during the day to see what they looked like at night. Below are some the places we saw in the night light. We did discover a few different places as well which we had not seen before. The elaborate city hall building was very unique. It was a great photographic experience, but the truth is we were fading fast. We ended up coming back to the apartment earlier than we had planned and going to sleep. Our long day had come to an end.

We chose to stay in Ghent because it was a short train trip from there to Bruges. It was also easy to get to the Netherlands from there. It was mostly a logistical choice, but it turned out to be a great choice. We loved the old buildings and the canals that run throughout the town. There were so many people there, and it was fun to be a part of a crowd and all that was going on. This is a town I would like to spend more time in. I feel like we just barely scratched the surface of what there is to see in town.

Anyone else had an opportunity to visit Ghent? I’d love to hear about your experience. In the meantime if you haven’t already, be sure to subscribe to my blog to get your weekly new post. Have you found that “like” button yet? Give it a tap if you like this post.